A Bright New Day
by Aurora Marija
Summary: Discontinued sorry! I just lost interest, realised how crappy this was, and don't have time to rewrite this.
1. Strange Things Happen

_((I just wanted to note that I in no way own any of the rights to, nor am affiliated in any way with the creators or owners of the Teen Titans, Cartoon Network, or DC Comics(or Time Warner, who owns all of them.). However I do retain rights to the ownership of all characters which I have made up for this story, such as Aurora(Melissa) and her family, among others, as well as the original plot for this story. based on a dream I had in July and August 2004.))_

**A Bright New Day**

_Chapter 1_

It seemed like it would be just like any other day. It certainly started out that way. Melissa got up, got dressed, and went on the long ride to school. Just another run of the mill day in the middle of junior year. But by the end of the school day, she was feeling sick. She'd had 3 seizures already during the school day, and was feeling worse, not better. When she got home, she had a grand mal, something she hadn't had for almost 2 years, and had never had on this new medicine. She didn't stop breathing or fall on anything that would injure herself though, so her mother just brought her up to bed and watched her all night, once she could walk up the stairs.

In the morning, she had another one, and so she stayed home from school. But she'd been in bed when it happened, so she was fine. But as she started to feel better as the day went on, something else just didn't feel right. Melissa couldn't figure out what it was. It wasn't a seizure type of feeling, but something else, just like something was out of place. She went to bed early that night, exhausted from the seizures, and woke up even before her mother did the next morning. She went to school and had another run of the mill day, but there was still that feeling that something wasn't right. When she got home, her brother Rich was harassing her about some video game he said she stole. She knew Karin had it, but didn't say anything, because how dare he blame and harass her. Then he started to chase her, trying to sit on her to get it back-and 230 pounds on you isn't exactly a party. She ran into her room and tried to close the door, but he shoved it open, and was about to hit her. She put her hands up to block the blow, and suddenly heard Rich screaming. When she put her hands down, nothing was wrong, but he was laying on the floor. He got up and ran downstairs, yelling to their mother, "She wrapped me in some kind of stuff and tried to kill me! You have to get rid of her! She tried to kill me!" Melissa was scared, since she didn't know what the heck he was talking about and didn't want to get in trouble, but she figured it'd be better not to go argue her case, cause he always won, and she didn't want to get involved right now.

She went up to her room, and vented her anger and fear to her friends online. She told all of them what a psycho her mom was being, then went on to post about it in all of her online journals. It didn't help much, but it helped. Afterwards, she got offline, surprised that her mother hadn't screamed at her to get off already, and read a book in bed, slowly dozing off to sleep.

Meanwhile, at Titans Tower, the Teen Titans had just gotten back from a long night that began with a battle with Plasmus and Overload, followed almost immediately by 10 students from the H.I.V.E. attacking multiple banks. People had gotten injured. 4 of the H.I.V.E. students had gotten away. And the Titans were so exhausted they could barely make it through the doors of the Tower. They all went to their rooms and collapsed on their beds, even though it was only about 9pm. But they were tired, and besides that, it seemed to be one of those nights, and they were all sure another attack, robbery, whatever, would follow later in the night. But when Beast Boy got to his room, he suddenly remembered a new online video game he had bought the day before and had been dying to play. He forgot about being tired and immediately went to the computer and started playing. After he lost 5 times, he decided to surf the Internet for a little bit to see if he could find any cheat codes, before playing again. It was then that he stumbled upon Melissa's recount of her strange day, accidently, when he clicked on a site labeled 'Cheat Codes in my Online Journal... and was taken to her site instead of the one with the supposed cheats. "Yo... Yo, Rae, Robin, you guys have gotta come read this!" He yelled, running out of his room to go get them, and pulling them back, while they muttered groggily at him to shut up. Starfire and Cyborg were also awakened by his yells. "What." "Look!" He pointed at the screen, and Raven sat down to read, while Robin read from behind her, leaning on the chair to get closer so his tired eyes could see the screen. Afterwards he turned to the group and explained it, since Cyborg and Starfire still had no idea what was going on. "I think we should help her.", Robin said. "Yes! I agree! We must help this poor suffering clorthorg!" Starfire said jumping up and down. "Yeah, I guess man. I do kinda feel sorry for her." "Well, that's why I told you guys. She... well, she kinda reminds me of someone.." "I...I'm against this... but since you all want to..." Raven muttered, turning to go back to her room. "Then it's settled. We call her." Robin said, before returning to his own room.

Later on that evening, Melissa was upstairs in her room, taking a nap before finishing her over 6 hours of homework, when her mother came up and told her someone was on the phone for her. "Who? Who is it? What do they want? Tell them I'm sleeping." But her mother had already gone back down, so Melissa got up and walked to the kitchen and took the phone, expecting one of the girls from school to be on the phone. "Hello?", she asked. "Hi.", said a deep, serious female voice. "You don't know us, but we kinda know you. Or of you anyway. Look, you're probably ready to hang the phone up, but don't. Um... one of my friends found something you'd written in an online journal today, and showed it to us. Well, we think we know what your problem might be, and we can help you. So we talked it over, and then my friends elected me to make the call." "Yeah, well...I'm gonna go now. Um...nice talking to you?", Melissa nervously said, thinking this was some kind of weird cult or something calling her up. It sure sounded like it. She was about to hang up the phone, but the girl started talking again, and she just couldn't hang up till she heard what she said, though she wasn't sure why. "Anyway, like I said, we can help. You may have noticed that you've been making stuff happen you can't explain. Probably freaked the hell out of you. That's normal though. So if you'd like our help to control your powers," Melissa cut her off before she could finish, "-Wait wait wait. Powers?" "Uh, yeah. Unless Beast Boy stupidly dialed the wrong number or something, cause he insisted on being the one to dial the phone. If he did, I'll kill him. But I was under the impression that you have some sort of energy abilities. At least, that's what Robin and I gathered from reading your account in your journal... Let us know if you'd like help." "Um..." Melissa remembered earlier in the day, when Richie had suddenly fallen to the floor, wrapped in some bright pink stuff, and she dejectedly consented to the girl's statements regarding herself. "Fine, okay, so you say I have these", she looked at her mother who was sitting at the other end of the table, half listening to the conversation, half watching the TV and lowered her voice to a whisper before continuing, "these "powers", right? So now what? What do I do? I think I almost killed my stupid brother today. You say you can help me. Well, how? What do I have to do?" "You want our help, right? Then we'll be at your house to pick you up in two days. Sorry, we're busy till then, or I guess we'd come sooner- even though I'm against all of this... Anyway. Be ready. Bye." "But-wait!", but the girl had already hung up the phone. "Great, I didn't even get a chance to ask who the hell she was. She could be like some guy who's a child molester or something, just used one of those things to change his voice. Or some evil devil worshipper who'll sacrifice me...", she said as she headed back towards her room. "So, who was that?", her mother stopped her dead in her tracks with that question. Melissa knew she would ask it, she always did, but she'd been so caught up in her own thoughts, she'd forgotten anyone else was there. "Um...a friend...from school. They..um...wanted to ask me a question about homework, and then we started talking about a show we watched the other day, where these people had weird powers. Can I go upstairs now?" "Yeah. Go ahead. Is all your homework done?" "Yeah.", Melissa said as she tore up the stairs and slammed her door behind her. Her homework wasn't done, nor anywhere close to it, but she needed time to think about that freaky phone call, even if she had to stay up all night finishing her work later on.

She lay on her bed and stared at the wall, trying to make sense of it all. The person on the phone knew what had happened to her today. They supposedly knew where she lived too, which was probably true, since they at least knew the phone number, and that was unlisted. "They", whoever "they" were, would be here on Saturday. They'd be here to get her. But what could she do? If she told her mother, all she would say is, 'Well, why were you so stupid? You shouldn't've talked to them. You should have told those people to leave you alone, hung up, then told me so I could call the police. And another thing- see you shouldn't use the Internet! Melissa knew all the blame would be put on her. Telling would only get her into more trouble, and make her feel guilty for endangering her family to boot. So she just lie there, trying to figure out what to do, and soon she was asleep, having nightmares about people coming and burning her family, or dismembering them in front of her, for some satanic ritual, while she watched helplessly from a makeshift prison, knowing she'd be next.

The next morning when Melissa's mother came to wake her for school, she was exhausted from waking up after each of the nightmares, but couldn't remember a thing about them, or about the previous night for that matter, thanks to the memory loss associated with her seizures, another of which she had almost immediately after awakening. But she'd already missed too much school that week, so she went in. It was the same old thing, the girl's acting like the bitchy snobs they were in their little cliques, and ignoring Melissa. But she didn't blame them. Everyone had always rejected her for as long as she could remember, at 5 different schools, since kindergarten, and besides, coming in Junior year wasn't easy. She expected them all to have their friends already established so why would they bother with ugly, lame her? At the end of the day, when Melissa's mother came to pick her up at 4:30 after getting Karin and Andy, she asked how Melissa's day was, and Melissa said it was great. She hated to lie like that, but her mother had been trying to find her somewhere to fit in for years, and Melissa didn't want her to feel completely powerless in making Melissa happy. Melissa was happier at this school then anywhere else in her life, and she knew she at least was pleased enough with her so-called, fair- weather, friends at MSMA to not want to shrivel up and die anymore. They went home, and that night she went to a dance at the boy's school that was affiliated with her's, St. Joe's. It was torture, but she bore it because her mother wanted her to meet someone to take to the prom in May, and it was already the end of February and she didn't know a single male being over the age of 14 and under the age of 30. She didn't meet anyone though, and sat around by herself for most of the dance, and was ecstatic when she was able to go home and go to sleep.

The next morning, she heard something outside, and not be able to sleep, even through the slightest noise, got up to go see what jackass was making noise at the high school this time. But it didn't sound like the wood shop, or the auto shop, and when she pulled up her blinds to take a look, she fell backwards onto the floor and almost passed out into another seizure. She stopped herself just in time, but then started screaming so loud it was as if the whole house would come down. A girl in black ripped the window off, then covered Melissa's mouth with some black substance. After she came in the window, four others followed, three boys and a girl. One of the boys was green, and another looked like he was a robot of some kind. By this point her mother and father were knocking on Melissa's door, which she hadn't even noticed the girl in black had somehow locked, even from where she stood at the other side of the room. She asked Melissa to please not scream, that they would explain everything, just that they needed her to pacify her parents first. She asked if she could let the dark energy around Melissa's mouth go now, if she could please not scream. Melissa nodded her head yes, and the black substance around her mouth disappeared with a wave of the girl's hand. Melissa then went to the door, which her parents were still banging on, and opened it ever so slightly. "Um...hi. Sorry I screamed like that. I'm fine, I just had a bad dream. So, can I go back to sleep now? As long as those stupid idiots over at the high school stop yelling. I'll bet you even heard them through my door!" "Well, are you sure you're all right? You haven't been feeling well these past few days, maybe we should stay with you a while." "No, really, I want to go back to sleep. I'm fine. Please!" Melissa's mother and father looked at her, then each other, then turned to go. "Fine, just leave the door unlocked in case you don't feel well again.", they said as they walked away. Melissa immediately closed the door and locked it. "Okay you people. Start talking."


	2. Friends?

_Chapter 2_

As the girl dressed in black finished her story, Melissa sat in a dazed shock. "So after the battle the other night I was exhausted. I fell asleep once we got in, so I didn't get a chance to meditate until the next morning. And when I went to go meditate, I couldn't concentrate. I kept thinking about different things, and I kept seeing you for some reason. So I gave up trying, and when Robin asked why I wasn't meditating I told him it was because I couldn't concentrate and kept getting visions of some girl. He said maybe we should contact you, which wasn't hard, since when I focused on you I was able to find out your name, where you live, and everything. So here we are." "Yeah, and we'd like to see what you can do. We've been thinking of adding another member to our team, and maybe it could be you. So what do ya say?", said Robin. Melissa continued staring off into space, about to pass out from shock. Finally she snapped out of it. "Wow, this really isn't a dream, is it? Um...well, I guess I could join you, but what would I have to do? And why would you even want me? Even if I do have these "powers" I certainly can't control them..." Melissa thought about all that had happened during the week: yellow "stuff" shooting from her hands when she was angry or scared and crushing things till they exploded, and waking up each morning to find her windows thrown open and most of her belongings floating outside the windows in midair. Robin spoke up, "That's okay. We can help you. So I guess we're ready to go then, huh?" The others climbed back out the window, the girl in black grabbing Melissa before phasing through the wall to the outside.

They had been flying for about 15 minutes, and everyone was silent. Finally Melissa asked, "So where are we going? Because if this takes too long, and my parents find me gone from my room, they'll call the police and have you guys arrested for kidnapping." Just then they crossed over a river and landed on an island in a small bay. "Don't worry, you can call your parents from inside. Besides, you aren't too far from your house. You're only in Philadelphia." Melissa looked around and saw that she was indeed in Philadelphia. However she couldn't understand why they'd landed on the island which seemed completely deserted. "Um...there's nothing here..." Just then the robot boy pushed a button on his arm and a huge T shaped Tower appeared less than 10 feet in front of her. She fell backwards and was helped up, then led inside, as the robot boy pushed the button again and the Tower seemed to disappear.

They took her up a large elevator, and when they got out she was greeted by the site of a cheery, posh living room and kitchen. The green boy and Robin sat on the couch and gestured for her to sit as well so she did. "Wow, this place is amazing. You really live here? So where's your parents? And you guys'll have to tell me your names again, I forgot. I told you I was bad with names." "Okay, well I'm Robin. I'm the leader of the Teen Titans." "Yeah, for some reason I remembered your name, just not the others.", Melissa laughed to herself embarrassed. "Whatever. Anyway, I'm Raven.", the girl in black stated. The boy in green jumped up from the couch and turned into an adorable baby kitten at Melissa's feet, then back to human form. "I'm Beast Boy." "I'm Cy.", the robot boy yelled out. "And I am Starfire! I wish to know, will you be my friend! Raven warned me not to speak while at your home, but now that we are at mine, I must know if you will be my friend!" This girl then commenced with crushing Melissa in a hug so that she could no longer breathe and began to turn blue. "Uh...Star, I think you're crushing her. If you want her to be your friend, it might be a good idea to keep her alive, you know.", Raven stated. Star immediately let go, letting Melissa fall to the floor and resume breathing. After a minute or two she got back up. "Hey, um, Star was it?" "Yes!" "Um...sure, I'd love to be your friend, just try to you know, stay away from me so my lungs don't get crushed and I die. Okay?" Starfire looked down at the floor awkwardly. "Yes, I am sorry I became so excited. I hope I have not injured you, it is just that it is not so very often when we get a new Titan. And when we did, she did not stay..." Starfire's face suddenly became very dejected looking and she turned and walked in to kitchen, where Melissa could hear that she was sobbing to herself. "Um...is she okay? I didn't mean to make her feel bad, really I didn't! It's just that she was crushing me, and..and, I was afraid she might do it again sometime, so..." Then Melissa noticed that Beast Boy was crying to himself as well, and that nobody was paying any attention to her apology. "What's wrong? What did I say, and why is everyone crying?" Raven spoke up, "It isn't your fault. It's just that you're the new girl now, or at least you probably will be. And we don't get new members on the team very often, like Star said. In fact, we've only had one other person join since us original five. Don't worry about them crying, they'll be fine. They're just remembering Terra. Though I don't think she deserves a second thought. Anyway, come on, I'll show you around, so we don't have to stay and watch them cry. It's kinda pathetic. And later you'll have to do the training course, so I'll show you how it works."

"So...who was "Terra"? And why was everyone crying like that? You said it was because of her, but why?", Melissa asked as Raven finished showing her around the Tower and brought her out to the training course. "Never mind. You're better off not knowing." "But I want to know. You said something about her, so tell me! I can't help it, I'm a curious person. Come on, whatever it is, it can't be that bad." Raven stopped walking and turned to Melissa. "Fine. You want to know about Terra? Then sit. But don't say I didn't warn you." "Um...okay. Whatever. Just tell me already, will you please?" Melissa sat as commanded on a large rock lying on the ground near the entrance to the course, and waited for Raven to start talking. "I'm not going into all the details, it'll take too long. But anyway, Terra came to us at the beginning of last year. She'd been traveling all over the place, running from natural disasters she'd caused when trying to help people. . We had to go battle Slade, and he manipulated her into thinking we'd betray and reject her like everyone else, so when we asked her to join, and Robin said we'd help her control her powers, she took off. She came back about a month later, with fully controlled powers, and asked to join. And we let her. We thought she was our friend. But the entire time she was working as a spy for Slade, giving him our secrets, and finally she betrayed us and the Tower was attacked. Beast Boy was crushed and she left with Slade, then a week later came back and attacked and almost killed us. But Slade turned on her and started treating her like dirt, so she decided to betray him too, and ended up getting encased in lava from one of her own volcanoes. That's where she is today. She deserves everything she got, but Beast Boy really liked her and he was really messed up after what happened, and as for Star- well what can I say, she's over emotional about everything." "Wow. And who's this Slade guy?" "Our archnemesis, that's all you need to know. He's evil, stay out of his way." Just then everyone else came outside for training, and Raven and Melissa got up to join them in the training course, where Melissa was up first. "I...I don't know about this you guys. I don't think I'm ready for this." "Don't worry! You'll do great!", Beast Boy shouted from the sidelines. Melissa tried to calm down, but she wasn't a calm person, and with the way she'd been feeling the past week, she was terrified out of her mind. She didn't want to make a fool of herself, she didn't want to get hurt...There were so many things that could go wrong. As the course turned on, disks began shooting out at her from almost every direction and she panicked, not knowing what to do. Finally she was hit in the head with one, and that, coupled with the stress of trying to impress these other teens, made her fall down and have yet another seizure.


	3. Showing Your Worth

_Chapter 3_

Melissa woke up on the couch in the Tower living room with everyone standing over her, and sat up. "Wha...what happened? How'd I do?" "Um...yeah, well...", Beast Boy started, laughing to himself embarrassed. He didn't know what to say to her. He thought to himself about how he didn't want to tell her she totally wiped out on the course and fainted. The other Titans started thinking of what they should say to her so she wouldn't feel bad as well. _"Look, you guys, could you all stop talking at once. I'm getting a major headache here. Doesn't help that I had one to begin with."_, Melissa longed to say. But she was afraid to hurt their feelings or anger them, afraid they'd reject her like every other person she'd ever met, outside of her family. So she kept her thoughts to herself like always, out of fear and shyness, and waited for someone else to say something. It didn't take long for Raven to bluntly state what had occurred. "You got onto the training course and you passed out. Then you started shaking. We brought you in here, and laid you on the couch till you came to. And now you don't seem to remember any of it, which is weird. Anyway, that's "how you did.""

"Oh." Melissa looked down into her lap dejectedly, thinking of what a sight she must've been, convulsing there on the ground, completely failing the course. She couldn't remember any of it; her memory was wiped out each time she had a seizure, but she could still envision the embarrassment. And was it really that apparent that she didn't remember anything? Everyone was staring at her, and it became obvious that she'd better say something. She tried to calm down, and think of what to say, then began speaking, stuttering at first. "I...um..I I'm sorry that I f..failed the course so bad. It won't happen again. I promise I'll do better next time. Just that, I, I had a seizure. I don't know why. I mean, I have them and all, I'm just not sure why it had to happen then. But I promise, it won't happen next time, really." Robin looked over at Raven, then back at the forlorn girl. "Uh..yeah, about next time...you know, maybe it's better if you just stay away from the course for a while. Until you work on your powers a bit more or something." Melissa could see where this was going. She shakily stood up. "Yeah, I understand. If you want me to go now... hell everyone else rejects me, why should you people be any different? I'm never good enough for anyone. I guess I'll go now.."

"No! Please do not!", Starfire said, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her back to her position on the couch. "Robin, we must not let her leave. She has no friends. We must be her friends, we must assist her!" Starfire said, then flying over to Robin's side, begging him to allow Melissa to stay. "Hey Star, I never said she had to leave. I just don't want her on that course again for a while, cause I don't want her having another seizure. Sorry we had you on that course Melissa, I didn't realize you were sick." Melissa looked down again at that word, "seizure", then got up once again facing Robin. "But I do have to leave. What will my parents say if they find out I've been abducted and brought to Philadelphia? They'll freak. I have to go. Thanks for everything, it was nice to meet you guys and all but-" "Why can't ya just call em' and tell em' that you're here with us? And that we're gonna help ya with your powers and all. I'm sure they'd let ya stay for at least the rest a' the weekend." Cyborg interjected. "Yeah, I'm sure they would- if they knew about these power things. But they don't. And I think I almost killed my brother about 4 days ago, so I'm not sure how they'd react." Melissa looked around at the teens, realizing that for once, someone actually wanted to be her friend; 5 someones in fact. Then she walked over to the phone, lying on a coffee table beside the couch, and picked it up. "But then, I guess it's worth a shot, huh?"

"No, really, I'm fine! And I'm not lying to you, really. These kids are gonna help me, please, just let me stay. Tell them at school that I've been sick or something if I'm gone into next week, please?" Melissa then paused, a distressed look on her face. "Wait, you're coming down here! Why? No! Really, I'm fine, and besides, you'll never find me. No, I'm not with some gang! Look, stop it! I'm staying and that's it. I don't care what you say, they want to help me, and I'm staying, so goodbye!", Melissa yelled, slamming the phone down hard onto the receiver and knocking it to the floor. Then she turned to the Titans, a resigned look on her face. "She didn't take it so well,... She thinks I'm lying and that I'm like taking drugs with some gang or something. I think I should go home...maybe not to stay, but at least to show her I'm telling the truth. I feel bad, I've never told her off like that. Can someone please bring me home?" They looked at each other then Raven stepped forward and said, "Sure, whatever. Let's go."

They landed at Melissa's house after flying in silence for almost half an hour. Melissa was rather perturbed by the fact that this girl hadn't said two words to her, and at first had thought her to just be shy, but now just had this feeling that she just didn't want to be bothered talking to her. Melissa knocked on the front door, and was greeted almost immediately by her mother. "Oh my God, where have you been! The police have been searching all over! We thought you might be dead! Thank God you're here!... And who's that freak that you're with?", She said, looking back at Raven in her strange attire. "I never thought that you would join a gang or cult, maybe your brother, but not you. Well, you get inside, right now.", she said, slamming the door almost in Raven's face. Raven then said to Melissa telepathically, _I'll be waiting outside. Try not to take too long, okay. I'm not going to wait forever. _Melissa retorted, _Yeah, yeah, yeah, fine, hold your horses, okay? I have to calm my mother down, got it? _She didn't even realize that she was talking to Raven telepathically. But Raven did. She sat down and tried to figure out why she hadn't sensed that Melissa was telepathic right from the start. She began to think that perhaps the girl had put up some kind of block to stop Raven from sensing all of her powers, and had just used this one this time without thinking. She decided that she'd have a little talk with Melissa when they got back to the Tower, but for now she wasn't going to say anything. Meanwhile, Melissa sat in the living room, wrapping and unwrapping Rich with her electromagnetic energy, then levitating objects around the room, such as the fish tank and the TV by using psychokinesis, while her mother and father looked on in awe and horror.Finally she got up, grabbed her medicine, and walked out the door, hoping Raven was still waiting for her to go back to Titan's Tower. She didn't say anything to her family as she left; she figured that they'd need some time to process what they'd just seen and decide what they thought of her later on. She called to Raven to wait a minute, and asked her the number of Titans Tower. Then she wrote it on a piece of paper she had taken from the house, stuck the paper in the doorjamb, and left, hoping her family would call her at some point.

When they arrived back at the Tower, everyone was getting ready to watch a movie, Wicked Scary 2. Melissa sat down on the couch between Beast Boy and Cyborg, eagerly anticipating the movie's start. As it began, Raven came up behind Melissa, tapping her on the shoulder, saying, "I need to talk to you. Privately. Now. So follow me." Melissa looked longingly at the television screen, but got upand followed. The other Titans looked at her go, puzzled, but soon the movie started, and they focused completely on their imminent terror.

Raven led Melissa up to a dusty, seemingly abandoned room, filled with junk, and using her powers, cleared a huge pile of it away, revealing a bed. "Sit." "Um...o...okay. Look,... Raven,... right? Um... is something wrong?" "I said sit. Then we'll talk." "Okay...um.. fine." Melissa hopped over piles of debris, finally making her way through the tumult to the bed, and sat down. Raven easily teleported from the doorway to the bedside, and stood there, staring silently at Melissa. Finally Melissa spoke up, "So come on, what's this all about?" "Why didn't you tell us you had more powers. And why couldn't I sense them. Did you block my powers somehow, so that I couldn't sense yours. And why. Are you trying to earn our trust, then betray us. Because I won't fall for it." "Huh! Are you high or something? N... No offense. But I don't know **what** you're talking about. Is this some kind of trick or something, cause it isn't very good, and you're scaring me." Raven could see that Melissa was frightened. "I want to know why you didn't tell us you were telepathic, and why I didn't sense it till this evening at your house." "I...I'm not. Telepathic! That's crazy! I'm not! Really! So stop it. Please..." Raven wasn't sure whether to trust her or not, but she figured she'd give her the benefit of the doubt for now, seeing as how Melissa said she had no idea what Raven was talking about. "Fine. I believe you. You can go." "Well, thanks. Now I'm scared out of my mind, and I probably missed about half the movie, but yeah, it was really great talking to ya." Melissa bolted from the room, hitting into many piles of junk as she went, knocking them to the floor and hurting herself. She didn't care though, as long as she was out of that dark, dusty room.

She sat down in her spot again, hyperventilating, and Beast Boy asked if she was okay. "Yeah, I'm fine. Raven just kinda freaked me out, that's all." "Ha, don't worry bout it. She kinda freaks out everyone. You just get used to it.", he laughed, as his attention focused back on the movie. Upstairs, Raven sat on Terra's bed, trying to figure out what the deal was with this girl, and how she "suddenly" had powers that neither of them had known about. After all, shouldn't Raven have sensed something? After sitting for about an hour like this, she turned off the lights, and went back to her own room. She had an idea of what might be going on, but she'd need to discuss it with Robin, and perhaps Melissa as well, and there was no way she'd be able to pull them away from the TV. She decided to talk to them in the morning, and went to bed.

The next morning, Raven finished meditating and headed downstairs just after sunrise. She made herself some tea and waited for the others to wake up. Gradually they trudged down the stairs to have breakfast. When Raven saw Robin coming down, she pulled him aside. "Look Robin, I want to talk to you about the new girl Melissa. I'm not sure whether we should trust her or not." "All right. After breakfast, we can go to my room and talk about it. But right now, I'm starving." Meanwhile, Melissa was getting dressed in the guest room they'd given her. She hadn't slept all night, thinking about why Raven had acted the way she had, and what she'd meant by the things she said. Melissa wasn't telepathic- that was crazy talk. But Raven had been so sure that she was... And she'd known about her other powers when these kids had first contacted her... Melissa didn't really know what was true anymore. She headed downstairs for breakfast. At first she got lost in the labyrinth of hallways and stairwells, but soon she found her way, and hungrily shoveled down about 10 of Cyborg's waffles. After they ate, Robin and Raven went upstairs and talked about Melissa. Soon they came back down and asked her to come up and talk with them. She didn't want to leave the waffles, but she reluctantly followed up to Robin's room. "So,... what's this all about? Am I in trouble for something?", Melissa asked apprehensively. "No, no, everything's fine. We just wanted to talk to you. About your powers. Raven told me that you have new ones and she couldn't figure out why. So we wanted to ask you a few questions, and see if our theory was correct. That's all. You don't have to get nervous.", Robin said. "Okay... so what did you want to know?" "Well, did anything happen around the time when you first got your powers. Anything significant, or out of the ordinary.", Raven stated. "Um...not really... Why? Well, wait, I had a seizure then, just like I did yesterday after trying to do that course. But when I had the seizure then, it was like two days before I got my powers, so that wouldn't have anything to do with it, right?" "I think it might. I think that somehow your seizures might be tied in to your powers, and that's why you suddenly got a new power after you got sick yesterday.", Robin said. He then turned to Raven. "See, she wasn't hiding anything from us. You shouldn't've worried so much." "I wasn't worried. Just a little concerned. After all, don't forget what happened the last time we trusted someone." "Yeah, I know, but I think we can trust her." Melissa looked at them as they talked back and forth, confused as to what they were talking about, and wanting to go get more waffles. "Um... well, now that you're done talking to me, can I go? I'm still kinda hungry." "Sure.", Robin answered smiling kindly at her. Melissa headed out the door to go downstairs, then turned back to Robin saying, "Oh, and I'm feeling lot's better today. I'd like to try that training course again, if that's okay?" "Yeah, we'll see. I'm not sure if I want you back on that course yet, but we'll see how you're feeling later."

Melissa walked downstairs, leaving Robin and Raven to talk more about her and whoever else they were discussing, and just as she sat at the table, an excruciatingly loud alarm went off, piercing her eardrums and resounding through the Tower. Robin and Raven ran down the stairs, and over to the TV, which had suddenly turned into some type of computer monitor, showing part of the city. Robin yelled, "It's Mumbo Jumbo. He's robbing a jewelry store, and he's got hostages. Titans go!" They all ran towards the door, while Melissa stood at the table, unsure of what to do. Finally, she decided to follow them out, not wanting to stay alone in the Tower, and wanting to see just what exactly they did each day.

They were gone in seconds, already across the water to the city when she finally made up her mind to follow them outside. She'd have to get across on her own. She straightened her arms, and pointed her hands towards the ground, attempting to levitate herself using her psychokinetic powers. After much effort, since she was just starting to get the hang of all this, she got up about10 feet into the air. Already, she could feel the wind thrashing her body, ripping at every inch of her being. But she didn't want to be alone here, so she ignored the pain, and concentrated on making herself levitate higher. The pain grew more intense with every inch, but she could tolerate it, after all, she'd been burned before, the worst pain she could possibly imagine. She finally got up to about 15 feet, and decided that was high enough, in case she fell, and since she was terrified of heights. Then she took her right hand and started moving it back and forth to try to get herself going, while she kept the other one still pointed down to try to ensure that she stayed up. She slowly crossed over the water, shaking uncontrollably with fear, and the second the first inch of land appeared she dropped to the ground, getting wet in the waves washing up along the shore. She pushed herself up and started walking around trying to find the jewelry store the Titans had proceeded to. As she walked around the city though, she became lost, and soon came upon a crowd of people. She walked over to see why so many had gathered around the outside of this bank, and immediately saw a gang of masked gunmen, holding bags of money they had stolen from the bank and holding about 7 people hostage, with guns to their heads, demanding all of their valuables immediately.

She stood there, on the fringes of the crowd that had gathered around the gunmen as they stood outside the bank with their guns to peoples' heads as they ordered them to empty their purses and wallets of all their money, as well as give them any and all credit and bank cards which they might be carrying. The hostages looked to the crowd in desperation and fear, but the crowd that had gathered was just as fearful of their own lives, and stood by, doing nothing to help. Melissa started to say something to them, in her weak, shy little voice, but it came out as a whisper that barely she could even hear. She didn't know what to do. She'd always lived a cloistered life in an upper class town, and had only even seen a gun once, when her brother had teased her with her father's old, rusted, and unusable shotgun, saying that it was now to become his. But now she was in the middle of a hostage situation, in which gang members less then 10 feet in front of her had stolen assault rifles thrust up against the unlucky hostages' heads. She started to walk forward, pushing through the crowd, thinking of how she could stop them since nobody else would, but then stopped herself thinking,_"What are you, crazy! They have guns! They'll kill you in a second. You don't know how to deal with people like this! Just wait for the police to get here; they're professionals, they can take care of it." _But then she heard the gunshot, and after the initial shock, all of the people gasp and scream in horror. She looked up and tried to see through the crowd, and what she saw was a person lying dead on the ground, with a bullet wound to the head. Not even stopping to think, she ran forward through the crowd.

"Stop...it..." Melissa said meekly as the gunmen turned towards her and started to laugh. "Hmmmm...yo boys, look what we got here. Look like someone else wanna die today, huh.", the gang leader said to the others. One had her by the neck before she even realized what was happening, and they put a gun to her head, demanding all her money. "I...Listen...I don't have any...Please, just let everyone go." The gang members laughed even harder this time, then shot another person, this time only a few feet in front of her. Seeing that, all of her fear and shyness were suddenly washed away, and she kicked the one holding her- hard. While he knelt on the ground, whimpering in pain, his comrades making fun of him, she held out her hands and shot out a burst of electromagnetic energy, wrapping all but one in it, almost crushing them to death. She was angry at the horror she'd just witnessed, and the hate in her caused an adrenaline rush that let out more power than she'd even believed she was capable of. But the gang member that she hadn't seized came up behind her and put a gun to her head. By this point, people had stopped standing around though, and piled onto the gunman. He shot at Melissa, but his shot hit her in the back instead of the head. She lost her concentration as she fell to the ground from the gunshot, and the other gang members were freed from her electromagnetic envelope, but they had been almost crushed to death, so fell to the ground as well, and laid there in pain.

The Titans took care of Mumbo pretty quicky, confiscating his wand and hat, and sending him off to jail. The went back to the Tower, but looked all over and couldn't find Melissa. They finally decided to go out and search for her.

Meanwhile, the police and paramedics had come to the scene of the shooting Melissa had been involved in at the bank. The paramedics had taken her, the gunmen, and one of the hostages who actually wasn't yet dead from their wounds, to the nearest hospital, while the police took testimonies from the witnesses. Everyone could guess that the girl must be a new Titan, even though they'd thought the Titans weren't accepting new members after the whole Terra escapade. Either that, or the girl was some new superhero that'd come into town, and was working on her own. After all, as the witnesses said to the police, she didn't seem to know what she was doing. At any rate, the treated Melissa immediately upon her arrival at the hospital, and after the surgery to remove the bullet, they put her on tons of painkillers, so that when she woke up in a few hours, she wouldn't feel a thing. Melissa would be fine. However, try as they might, they couldn't save the gunshot victim who'd been shot in the head. The person was pretty much a vegetable, but their family decided to keep them on life support should they ever possibly wake up. And as for the gangsters that Melissa had crushed; one of them died upon arrival at the hospital, due to his heart, liver, and pancreas all being crushed and ruptured, but the rest survived with only minor injuries.

The Titans split up and looked all over for Melissa, and finally Cyborg came upon the crowd still standing around the bank, being questioned by the police. "Yo, what happened?" One woman turned to him and answered, "Oh, it was terrible. These young hoodlums were holding people hostage and demanding their money. And after they'd just robbed the bank too! Oh, I thought I would faint. They had guns, and they shot some of those poor people, heaven help their souls. But then, this young girl ran up there, and she stopped them. She was like you Titans I suppose, and from what I could see, she crushed all those evil men, before they shot her. Then the police and the ambulance came, and they took them all away...And then.." "Uh, sorry lady, I gotta go. No offense. Thanks for all your help!" Cyborg said, as he cut off the old woman in mid- sentence, and ran off towards the nearest hospital, calling the other Titans on his communicator as he went, to let them know what had happened. They found Melissa at the hospital, and were there when she woke up. Raven healed her so that she could leave the hospital, and they went back to the Tower. When they got there, the Titans went into what seemed to be some sort of conference room. They stayed in there for at least an hour. Melissa was sure they were talking about her, and hoped they weren't angry for her stopping those gangsters all on her own, without consulting them first. _"Boy, these people are weird"_, she thought. _"I should just get outta here while I've got the chance." _But something compelled her to stay. Something made her care that they were most likely talking about her in that room, care what they were saying. She wanted to impress them, wanted them to like her, even if she didn't know why. Maybe she felt like she'd finally found some people who might actually want to be her friends- who could understand her without being phony. But anyway, she was sure they'd tell her to go take a hike now. She tried to hear what they were saying, but couldn't, so fell asleep on the couch, watching TV and waiting for them to come out.


	4. Welcome To The Club

_Chapter 4_

They came out of the room sooner than Melissa would have expected. Melissa was still sleeping, but upon hearing the door to the room open, promptly awoke and sat up, nervous as to what they would say, and embarrassed that she'd fallen asleep. Beast Boy started laughing, as all the Titans walked over to her. _"Well, this is it..."_ she thought. _"They asked me to come here and all, and I thought I'd finally found friends, and now that I have these "powers" I thought they could help me but...."_. Robin cut off her train of thought. "Hey, Melissa. We talked it over, and well, we think that you'd make a great addition to our team. So, would you like to be a Titan?" He held out a communicator to her, smiling. She just stared at it in shock, not knowing how to respond. But the shock didn't last long, because Starfire jumped onto the couch and grabbed her in a tight hug. "Yes, please do! I am so glad to have met you, my new friend, and I do wish for you to stay, and be one of us!" "Yeah, that was totally cool how you took down all those bad guys by yourself." Beast Boy stated. "Yeah,......I know, but I...."

"Of course, you'll need more training..." Robin interjected. "Yeah, I know, I know I will. Let's just hope I don't pass out again.", Melissa answered. At that, all the Titans gathered around Melissa, Beast Boy making jokes while the others gave her words of encouragement. All that is, except for Raven. She stood removed from the group, watching them all and thinking of how familiar this all was. She still didn't trust this girl- couldn't because of what had happened the last time they'd trusted someone. Finally though, Beast Boy came over and started harassing her, breaking her train of thought, and pulled her over to the others. "Well, whaddya have to say Raven?", Beast Boy said in a sing-song type of voice. "Congratulations.", Raven said automatically, in her emotionless voice, tainted with just a hint of sarcasm. Melissa looked at her and could tell Raven wasn't happy that Melissa had been asked to join the team, but she decided to keep her mouth shut, because she didn't want to make enemies. "Um.....I have one question. Since I'm a Titan now", Melissa said, taking the communicator out of Robin's hand, "do I get to make suggestions and stuff?" "Uh...yeah sure", Robin answered her. "Fine. Then I think that maybe, since there's just as many girls now as boys on the team, we should have two leaders of the group, like co- leaders. And that Raven should be the co-leader with you Robin." She looked at Raven and smiled, and received a shocked but happy glance in return. "But is not Robin the leader?", Star asked, distressed. Both Beast Boy and Cyborg seemed to think it was a good idea though, and went over to Starfire, to try to convince her of the same. Robin just sat down on the couch, staring dejectedly into his hands. "Yo man, let's take a vote.", Cyborg said. "All those in favor?" Everyone but Robin raised their hands.

"Okay, well it's settled then. Rae's the new co-leader. Even though I always kinda wanted that job, but whateva."Cy said. "Yeah, well, anyway, now that I'm sure I'm represented, I'm gonna go to bed, cause I really don't feel that well. And thanks guys, for asking me to join your team....I'm surprised you'd wanna have me- I'm so pathetic at everything." "You are not! You just can't control your powers so great yet, but you'll learn. Terra was worse then you, and she learned how to control them." Beast Boy blurted out. "Okay, well, I hope so." Melissa thought of asking about this "Terra" again, but she was too tired to try. After all, she knew she'd only get a roundabout answer again anyway, so she might as well not waste her breath. Robin stood up just then, and started walking upstairs. "Hey Cy, it's getting late, better shut everything down and have everyone get to bed. You never know what we'll have to do tomorrow." He didn't say goodnight to anyone, not even Star, and just walked up to his room after putting his message across to Cyborg. He slammed the door to his room so loudly that the whole Tower shook. Starfire immediately flew up to console him, but came back down a few minutes later. "Hey Starfire, what happened. You look crushed." "Robin does not wish to speak with me, or with any of his friends for the remainder of the night! I fear that he is depressed, for I heard him talking angrily to himself, and I believe he may have been doing some of the crying, though I am not sure. But I do not understand why he does not wish to see me!?" "Look, Star, he just needs some time alone. Just go to bed. Rob'll be fine. Okay?" "Alright Cyborg, but still, I am greatly concerned for my friend's well-being...." All the Titans headed upstairs Cyborg almost dragging Starfire up the stairs and past Robin's door so she would go to her room and to bed. Melissa headed to the guest room, which was going to be her room from now on, and went to bed. She wondered what tomorrow would bring. Things seemed more than a little weird here, and she wanted to get home to see her family, whether she was off from school or not. She drifted off pretty quickly though, dreaming about the past day's events, and trying to figure out what all these secrets were that they seemed to be perpetually keeping from her.

Melissa woke up late, and by the time she'd gotten dressed and came down the stairs, all the food was gone, and the Titans were dispersed all over the Tower. Cyborg and Beast Boy were playing video games in the living room, and Melissa tried to stop and talk to them, but after she'd uttered barely a word to them, they were ready to jump down her throat, screaming at her to shut up, because they were playing in some kind of tournament against other people, online. She walked outside, and saw Raven floating by the water. She didn't even try approaching her. After only about a week at the Tower, she already knew better than that. So she decided to take a walk around the immense Tower, and as she turned the corner around the back, she found Starfire and Robin, on the obstacle course.

"Uh....hey..guys....um....how are you?" "Oh! Friend Melissa! Please, come and join us, in the course of training! You are concerned for your powers, but this will aid you, I promise." Starfire flew over and grabbed her arm, dragging her to the course, which was still going, since Star had left right in the middle of doing the course. "No Starfire please –" Just then, an exploding disk hit Melissa in the stomach and knocked her to the ground. Robin de-activated the course and ran over, while Starfire helped her up. "Oh....I am so sorry! Are you alright dear friend Melissa?!" "I...yeah, I am. Wow. I mean it hurts, but I'm okay... Hey Robin, I want to try the course for myself again,.....if that's alright with you and all." "You sure? I mean, after last time, I don't want you to until you're ready." "I'm ready, I just know it. Turn it on. I need to learn to control my powers, and if I never practice, how will I ever learn?" "Alright, fine. But be careful. And I'm putting it on the lowest setting." Melissa got ready, and the course activated. A few disks flew at her as she ran through, but they were easy to dodge; and right at the end, she had to fight a robot, but it had no guns or anything, so she was easily able to wrap it with her electro-magnetic energy and crush it. "Oh, friend Melissa! That was wonderous! I am so pleased that you have done so well to have beaten the difficult course!" Starfire said as Melissa walked off the course and over to the control module for the course, where both Star and Robin were sitting. "Uh....Robin, that was a little too easy...." "Fine, but for now, I think that's good enough. Let's go inside." Robin retorted.

Melissa was ticked, but she knew why he was acting the way he was. "Okay, fine whatever. But look, I'm sorry about what happened yesterday, and I know now you probably wish you never asked me to join and all. But I felt like I had to appease Raven somehow, cause she hates me for no good reason, and we really did need female representation, and...." "No...really, it's fine. I'm okay with it now. Though I'll admit, I was a bit angry yesterday about the whole thing, but you're right, we do need a co-leader, and it does need to be a girl. You had a good idea, and you had a right to express your opinion, and see what the others thought. But as for why Rae hates you, I'm not sure this'll help much." "Really. Then why does she hate me? Tell me, I have a right to know. I'm tired of all these secrets you're keeping from me. And you can say you're not, but I know you are. I have lots of experience with fair-weather friends, and they keep tons of secrets. After a while, you learn to tell when they are. If I'm gonna be on this team of yours, you have to be my real friends, and that means no secrets, or at least that's how I feel about it. I know I'm new, but still, it doesn't fell right that you're keeping stuff from me." By then, they'd reached the living room. Cyborg and Beast Boy had left for the video game store after losing the game, and the room was deserted. Robin turned to Melissa with an angry look on his face. "Fine. You wanna know?! Don't say I didn't warn you though! Got it?! Now sit!" "Uh...I'm...fine...but...I...what did I do?!" "Just sit!" Starfire quickly left for her room, not wanting to be around the yelling and fighting.

After Melissa sat down on the couch, Robin went over to the computer next to the TV, and pulled out a disc from a drawer underneath the computer. "You wanna know why she hates you, you wanna know everything about us, our history and all. Well, fine. I doubt you can handle it though, but you asked for it." He put the DVD disc into the computer, and it came up on the TV screen. "What...what is this?" Melissa asked, as the show came on. "Shut up right now. After you watch it, I'll explain. Okay?" "Uh....sure, whatever." Melissa sat, and was soon entranced. _These kids had a show about them! She just couldn't comprehend that. And it was the best show she'd ever seen too. _He must've gotten up about 5 times to change the disc, there were so many episodes. About half-way through, suddenly the show introduced a beautiful blonde-haired character named Terra. The one that these Titans always seemed to be talking about, then suddenly _not_ talking about once Melissa'd ask about her. Finally, she could get the answers she needed. As she watched, she realized that Terra was just like her; not just because she was blonde, no, deeper than that. Terra couldn't control her powers either, and Terra seemed to have been rejected everywhere she went before meeting the Titans too, so she had trust issues as well. Melissa felt sorry for Terra, felt almost like it was her on the show, and she immediately wanted to meet Terra and become friends with her. But when Robin got up to change the disc again, and she saw the next episodes with Terra, she was appalled. After Aftershock ended, he got up to turn off the TV. Melissa was crying. "Well, there. Now you know why Raven hates you." "But...But... Oh my God....poor Terra.....I feel so sorry for her.....you...someone like you can't understand. What wacko made that show anyway?! Cause I know that, that girl Terra couldn't've been evil. I know how she feels. She's just like me...." Melissa sobbed.... ".....ex..except that I would never join that psychopath guy Slade." Melissa quickly added. "I would never betray you guys like she did, I don't want Raven to hate me but.......I....I want to get her out of the rock...if any of that was real...." "It was real alright.....Every week Rae writes up a summary of what we did for the week and sends it to the producers of the show. They read it over, and they make it a little less realistic, so little kids can see it without getting scarred for life, then they produce the cartoon. We get a little money from it, and that's what we use for food and repairs. But actually though, what really happened with the whole Terra thing was much worse. She almost killed us. And she killed plenty of people here in the city." "But....forget it, you could never understand.....You can't understand what it's like to be rejected, what it does to you." "So what are you saying, you'll do the same as she did?!" "No! No.....I'm just saying I understand why she did what she did though.....did you ever actually try to get her out like it said on the show?" "Well....Raven and I tried for about two weeks to find a cure, but we couldn't, even after searching through all her books and on the Internet, so we figured we'd just give up. We told Beast Boy that it was impossible." "So you lied, huh? That was mean. Well...I'm going to get her out, and that's it. Try and stop me." "We didn't lie Melissa. We did try, just...not that hard. But at any rate, we couldn't find any cure for her. You shouldn't even bother. It's impossible. I mean, she's stuck in a rock. She has no food, no water, no air....think about it." "I have....But just because she's in that rock doesn't mean she's dead. You don't know much about rock types, do you? Pumice has holes....she can breathe, and as for water...well, I don't know. But like my parents say, if you don't try, you'll never know. Where's Beast Boy, I need him to bring me to see Terra."

At that, Melissa went to her room, and sat there till she heard Beast Boy and Cyborg come in about an hour later, thinking all the while of what might safely dissolve the pumice and free Terra. It was hard, and by the time BB came back, she still didn't have a clue as to what they could use, but her spirits weren't dampened at all, and she went down to the living room. "Hey, Beast Boy..." Melissa tried, as Beast Boy and Cyborg ran right by her, almost knocking her over, and jumped onto the couch, immediately putting on their new game. "Um...okay, maybe we can talk later then..." She said more to herself then him, as she turned to go, Beast Boy entranced by the new game.

As she headed up the stairs, she bumped into Raven. "Oh.....I...I'm so sorry! I didn't mean t-" "Forget it. It's fine, just leave me alone." Raven retorted, giving her a sarcastic stare. As Raven pushed past Melissa and headed down the stairs, Melissa called after her, "Look, I'm not Terra, okay?! I'm my own person, and I won't make her mistakes! So get over your damn issues, okay?" "Raven froze in mid-step, and turned. "Where did you hear about Terra?" She looked angry, almost evil, and Melissa immediately wished she could eat her words. She tilted her head and looked down at the floor, nervous and trying to find words to answer the question. Her voice shook so it was barely understandable, as she uttered, just above a whisper, "I....uh...., well, Robin told me,...and I, well.....look, you have no right to hate me when you don't even know me!" She finished, her voice rising in volume as she regained her confidence. "Hmmm.....I guess you're right. Fine, so how about I get to know you? And I apologize for jumping to conclusions, but I think I had a right to." Raven turned back and headed back up the stairs. "Look, I'm not much for talking, but if you want to tell me about yourself, and all, fine. Let's go to your room though, so we don't have the boys harassing us. They can be the most annoying beings in the universe. Sometimes I feel like murdering Beast Boy." Melissa laughed as they headed to her room.

"So, there isn't really much else to tell. I mean, like I told you, I am kinda like that girl Terra, but I..I would never be stupid enough to trust some weird stranger guy, who could like be a child molester for all I'd know. I've learned to deal with rejection, and I'm really okay with having no friends, even though I like having them and all. So, what I'm saying is, even if you all told me to leave, I'd still be okay. I wouldn't go psycho and need revenge." "Well, that's good to know. I guess you aren't really so bad. We seem to have a lot of things in common, share the same interests, and after reading your mind a couple of times, I guess I can trust you. Maybe we could be...friends. Sorry about the way I acted before, I just can't get over what Terra did to us." "Hey, it's okay. I understand. I'd probably act the same if I had some jerk for a friend, who tried to murder me.....except I don't ever let myself really trust people, so then they can't get close, and turn around and betray me. But actually, I feel like I might change that policy for all of you guys." "Glad to hear it. And I'm glad you joined our team. I never could've been a "co-leader" if not for you." Raven smiled slightly at that. "Yeah.....Well, I'm getting tired, so...." "Okay, bye." Melissa got up and started getting out clean sheets for the bed while Raven left, then stopped just as Raven was leaving. "Um....you think this room could be painted? I was just wondering, and at first I was afraid to ask, then I forgot till now....but I just hate red, and it's making me have nightmares." "Sure. I'll talk to Cy about it in the morning." Raven said, as she left and went to her room.

"Well, she isn't really so bad. I was wrong. She isn't like Terra at all." "Cool! Then we can be friends with her, right?", Happy said. Brave butted in,"Yeah, I wanna be friends with her Raven, so don't keep acting all cold and sarcastic. I mean, c'mon, you're always complaining that nobody understands us, well, here's our chance. We can have a real friend, a best friend." "Oh yeah! Too cool! We finally get a best friend?!" Happy interrupted, jumping up and down in front of Raven. Then Smart got up from her seat and started pacing. She still didn't think it was alright to trust anyone after the Terra incident. "Um....we should still be careful. After all, Terra seemed like she would be the perfect best friend. But she knew just how to please everyone, now didn't she? For all you know, this girl could be doing the same, tricking into thinking she's this sweet, innocent girl with no friends, who just would love to have you for her best friend and all. Then once you let down your guard and trust her, once you let her be your best friend, like Terra was, that's it, she's got you. Give it a few weeks, I'd say, just to see if you really can trust her, before you form any real friendships." "I guess....but I feel like she's telling the truth, like I really can trust her to be my friend. I never felt that way with Terra, just that she tricked me into believing her somehow. But I guess you are right, and I'll give it a week or two, and see how she acts before I really decide whether to trust her as a friend or not. I've gotta get to bed, but thanks you guys for your help." Raven stopped meditating and put her mirror away, then got into bed.

Melissa woke bright and early to the smell of waffles and french toast. Everyone was already at the table eating, but at least this time there was still food left, and she sat down. Robin was in the middle of explaining the day's plans to everyone."So, like I was saying, today would be a great day to use the course, because the weather is supposed to be perfect." "Hey guys. Um, how is everyone?" "Oh, fine Melissa. Like I was just saying," "I..I heard you, today's course training. But when it's my turn, please don't put it on level 1 again. That was pathetic." Beast Boy got up and stood at the table with french toast hanging from his mouth. He then blurted out, "Hey... you're... going ...to. ..put.. it.. on....10000000000 for me.... right?" As he spoke the chewed up food started to fall out of his mouth and onto the table. Beast Boy looked around at the other Titans waiting for a positive answer. He smiled as more food fell out of his mouth. "Raven looked at him really annoyed. "Hey, stupid.....it only goes up to level 10." Raven stared at him like he had 17 heads. Beast Boy sat back down and looked at her, embarrassed. "Oh.......uh......okay" Starfire looked at Raven's plate to find that it was empty. She jumped up and quickly swallowed her food. "Raven! Now that you are done with the eating of your breakfast, may we go to the mall of shopping!!!!!!!" Starfire looked at her with big eyes waiting for a response. Raven looked at her. "No." Starfire sat back down in her chair sadly. Melissa looked at Raven. "You know Raven, you should really go with her. You're acting so mean. She just wants to spend time with a good friend." Melissa quietly responded. Raven looked at Melissa. "Fine.......I'll go.....but I know I'll regret it." Starfire jumped up in joy. "HOORAY! Raven let us go now so we may dye our hair pink!!!!!!! And add the hair ornaments and jewelry!!!!!" Starfire grabbed Raven and flew out the door. Melissa looked at everyone then sat down. "Wow.....I'm good." Melissa started to eat.

It was Melissa's turn. Cyborg had already gone, and gotten up to level 9 with just about perfect scores. And as for Beast Boy.....well, he had gotten up to level 5, before one of those huge metal doors had fallen on him while he was trying to get through to the end, and he'd almost been crushed underneath. As for Melissa, Cyborg and Robin had agreed to start her out with level 3, and see what happened from there. It started, and Melissa began to freak out, but she remembered what happened the last time, and calmed herself down. Disks flew at her, lasers shot at her, and the ground, which had apparently only been a sheet of metal with dirt piled on top, opened under her feet. She levitated off the ground, and tried to dodge everything firing at her, but realized she couldn't, so she wrapped the guns in energy and crushed them, having to take a few hits from the explosive disks to do so. It hurt of course, but she was glad they weren't actually dangerous. Once she finished with the guns, she set herself down where one of the guns had been mounted, and concentrated on deflecting the remaining disks away from her. It worked, and she used her powers to make them all hit each other and explode. The round was over, and the boys all started cheering and yelling to her about what a great job she'd done. "Uh...thanks guys, but could someone help me down from here? I'm afraid of heights, and..I'm stuck." She called back to them. They started laughing, but Beast Boy turning into a Pterodactyl, and flew over to get her, bringing her back to the control module and setting her down. "Thanks Beast Boy." "Oh...you're welcome." He replied, blushing. Robin got up. "Okay you guys, well, I think that was enough for today, so let's go back in-" "Yeah, and play some video games!" Cyborg interrupted. "First one there picks which tournament mode and gets to pick character first!" He yelled as he ran back to the Tower. "Oh yeah, well I'll beat you no problem!" Beast Boy said running after him.

Melissa was tired of waiting to talk to Beast Boy, so she ran too, and finally caught up with him at the door. "Look, Beast Boy, I need to talk to you about something, but I need to see you alone." "Why?" "I..I just do, okay? I'll tell you inside. I guess we could talk in my room." She said, looking back to see Robin fast approaching, and not wanting him to hear what she had to say. "Uh, okay, whatever, but I was gonna go and play..." "I know, but this is more important, believe me. Let's go."

So they went to Melissa's new room, and she had him sit on the bed while she stood and explained to him what she wanted to do. "Terra isn't dead, she can't be. And..I ...I want to help her, to save her. Robin and Raven barely even tried to save her, but I think if we really try, then we can." "But...but they said.....Look, she's dead. I finally started to forget about her, and now you just had to bring this up." Beast Boy angrily got up to leave. "Why would she be dead? Think about it. I'm sure you still believe she isn't. Well, even though I never got to meet her, I want to help her, because she's just like me, and I feel sorry for her. I thought all night about it, and I think I might have an idea of what could dissolve the lava. Of course, I'll need to talk to the chemistry teacher at my school to be sure, since I suck at chemistry, but still.......Robin told me that he barely tried to find a cure, that he really didn't want to, but he told you that he tried, and it turned out it was impossible." Beast Boy stopped in the doorway, but hesitated to turn. Melissa could hear him crying, though it was almost inaudible, and she could tell he was trying his absolute best to hide it. "Look, I'm sorry if I'm being mean....I just don't want to see you act so sad anymore......" Beast Boy quickly wiped his tears away and turned back. "Alright, then let's do this. When can we see your teacher? And I'm gonna really give it to Robin later on. He told me he looked for months, and there was no cure." "Not what he told me....But anyway, the teacher isn't my teacher, so I'll need a few days after being back in school to get a chance to see him. But we'll get her out. As for now, why don't we do some research on our own for a while? Got a computer?" Beast Boy ran to Cyborg's room and took his laptop, then came back and turned it on. Then he and Melissa researched the chemical make-up of lava rock for 3 hours, until Robin yelled up the stairs that it was time for dinner.

In a few hours Raven and Starfire came back . Both Raven and Starfire had pink hair, adorned with colorful, glittery butterfly clips. Raven walked over to Melissa and grabbed her. "I am going to kill you!!!!" Melissa looked at Raven and smiled in fear. "Ow, come on. It was only once...... I'm sure the stuff'll come out. And it doesn't look so bad really... C'mon, I only wanted to make sure Starfire was happy." "Then why didn't you go?!" Raven said, tightening her grip around Melissa's throat.

Melissa looked terrified, but knew she had to stop Raven. She let out a burst of the pink electro-magnetic energy, and started trying to wrap Raven in it. Just then, Robin walked into the room. "Hey, how was the mall? And...why are you choking Melissa, Raven?" Raven dropped Melissa to the floor. "Look at my hair. How do you _think_ the mall was. Ugh...just kill me now, and end this terrible nightmare." "It's my fault, so, why don't we try to go wash that stuff out. As long as you promise not to try to kill me again..." Melissa offered. Raven was in the bathroom, with her head in the sink within seconds. "Wow...you're really desperate, huh? Well, let's hope this comes out." "That's right, you'd better hope."

After about half an hour of washing Raven's hair, the dye did come out though. "God, I feel like your hairdresser." "Well, you have about the brain capacity of one. You're lucky it came out. Now I'm going to meditate before I blow something up, so tell everyone to LEAVE ME ALONE! And I really don't want to see you, after you got my hair dyed pink!" Raven stormed off to her room, leaving Melissa standing at the bathroom sink with a towel and bottle of shampoo in her hands, not knowing how to respond. Beast Boy walked over, having had to use the bathroom for 20 minutes already. "Hey....uh, something wrong Melissa? Cause ya know, I kinda need to use the bathroom if it's okay with you." "Huh? Oh, sorry Beast Boy. I just don't understand why Raven hates me. I told her I'm not like Terra, I tried to be her friend....and nothing I do seems to change her attitude. I can't sleep at night, fearing that she'll come and kill me or something. But wait, what'd you say?" "Well, as for Rae, she needs time to get used to people, and she's got a bad temper. And, I said I need to use the bathroom." "Oh! Oh, I'm so sorry! Um...here, just let me get this shampoo outta here." Melissa quickly went back to her room, embarrassed and confused; she didn't stay long though, because it was time for dinner. Beast Boy saved her a seat right next to him, and afterwards, they went right back upstairs to search the Internet for cures. He was so intent, he hadn't even made any jokes during dinner. The others knew something was up. "So, Rob, ya think he likes her?" "It's a good possibility Cyborg. I mean, you saw the way they were acting. But it would be good for him, and help take his mind off Terra." "Yeah, real good.", Raven stated, more to herself than the others. They didn't even pay attention, because just as she spoke, Starfire jumped up and said, "Yes! Our friend will not have the sickness of heart anymore! I am so pleased that Melissa has come to be our friend!!!" And they talked about the possibility of BB hooking up with Melissa for almost an hour, while Raven quietly slipped off to her room, saying she needed to go meditate.

"He doesn't like me. Any idiot could see it. No matter how hard I try, he doesn't get the point. And always, right when he seems to be catching on, some new girl always comes on the scene and ruins it. First Terra, now this one." Brave couldn't take it anymore. She got up and just about yelled,"You don't know that. Why don't we go and ask him if he likes us? Tell him that we like him?" "I...I'd be afraid to. What if he hates us....I'm sure he does.....He always acts like it, calling us a freak and all....I....I don't want to..." "Timid is right. You can't just go up to him and say, 'Hey Beast Boy, I love you.' Think of what that could do. If he was to say that he hates Raven, well, then Anger would get out, and we'd all have a real problem. We'll just have to wait and see. Besides dear, maybe he isn't the right boy for you." "Thanks Smart, you always seem to know just what to say." "Yes, now Raven, you'd better go and meditate. Enough talking with us. We'll see you tomorrow." "Okay, thanks. Bye." Raven quietly left her mind, and tried to meditate, but she couldn't, and kept breaking things as hate welled up inside of her for Melissa. She had finally had a chance with Beast Boy, all she had needed was a bit more time, and Melissa had to come and ruin it. Soon, almost everything in Raven's room was lying in an explosive heap, but she didn't even notice, being too caught up in her feelings.

"Oh wow, look at this site! Oh, I think I may have found something Beast Boy!" "Really?! Cool! What, what is it?!" "Well,...wait a minute, I just meant that I think there might be something on here, not that I've found anything _yet_." "Oh, well, tell me when you do...", Beast Boy said, dejectedly returning to sit on the corner of his bed. Just then, Cyborg walked into his room to recharge himself. First though, he'd promised Robin that he'd get him his laptop, since Robin said he needed to go download some information from the library. Cyborg didn't even ask what; he knew it had to be something on Slade, and that Robin just didn't want the other Titans to see him getting the stuff. But he told Robin that he could use his computer. When he got to his room though, the laptop wasn't on his desk where he'd left it. He started searching all over his room, but couldn't find any trace of it. Robin walked in. "Uh...Cyborg, I was just wondering what's taking so long, cause I really have to get going before the library closes." "Yo man, where's my laptop. I swear, I had it here this morning, and now it's gone." "You think anyone else could've borrowed it?" "Not sure, but I'm gonna find out." With that, Cy left his room, and went straight to Beast Boy's door. "Yo, BB, you in there?" He heard whispering, then Beast Boy said, "Uh..yeah, just a sec." "Look man, I know you got Melissa in there with ya, but all I wanna know is-" Just then, Beast Boy opened the door. "Uh....hey Cy. Can I help you with something?" "Yeah man, I'm lookin' for my computer. Rob needs it for the library. You got it?" "Uh......no,...I uh.....haven't seen it....uh....You got a computer?!" Beast Boy replied nervously. "Okay man, that's it. I know you got it, so give it back."

Cyborg pushed past Beast Boy into the room, and grabbed the laptop from Melissa, then turned to walk out of the room. Beast Boy grabbed his arm to try to stop him. "No! You can't! We need it! You don't know what we're doing! You can't take it now! Please!" Cyborg stopped, and looked at Beast Boy's puppy dog face staring at him. "Fine, tell me....why do ya need it so much." "Well, we can't tell you, cause then you'd tell everyone else and..." "Fine man, then I'm going." "No! No wait! We'll tell you, but you have to be sworn to secrecy." Beast Boy slammed the door and pulled Cy into the far reaches of the room. "We're trying to find a way to bring back Terra." He whispered. "Oh man...Robin told ya it was hopeless. C'mon, don't get on that stint again. Look man, I'm sorry, but Terra is not comin' back. Now I have to go bring this to Robin." With that he left. "Look, don't worry Beast Boy. We'll save her, I know we will." Melissa said going over to the now sobbing beast Boy and hugging him tightly. "As for now, we'll just have to wait, that's all. Please don't cry. I don't wanna see my friend cry. And I don't know how to help you." "Hey, it's okay. You're helping enough. I'll be fine, don't worry. For now, let's go play some video games." Beast Boy wiped away his tears, and ran from his room and down the stairs in a flash, leaving Melissa standing there and almost ready to cry herself, at all that her poor friend had to bear inside of him.

"Ha ha, beat you again!" Beast Boy must've beat her at least 10 times already, and Melissa was ready to give up, only she wanted to keep him happy. Luckily, the phone rang, and Cyborg walked to pick it up, but just before he did said, "Yo, that the new Super Space Monkeys 5 game?! Yo B, once I'm done on the phone, I'm gonna pulverize you in that game!" "Are not!" "Cyborg didn't hear him though, because he'd already answered the phone. "Really? Uh huh. Okay, well I'll let her know. You wanna say hi? Okay, hold on a sec. Yo, Liss, it's your mom." Melissa jumped off the couch at those words, shocked. She certainly never thought she'd hear from her again. "I...uh...okay." Melissa took the phone. "Hi..I...wait, what?! Now?! But I....oh, oh he's sick?...Oh....Yeah, I'll be home by morning, not sure if they can get me back this late at night. Yes, I'll be glad to see you too. Goodnight."

Melissa hung up the phone and stared at Cy and BB sadly. They looked back at her, waiting for her to confirm what they already knew from overhearing her conversation. "I..have to go home by tomorrow, for school and all. I'm surprised she wants me back, but she does.....and I'm not ready to leave. I didn't get to stay here and know you guys enough yet." She said woefully as she walked over and plopped down on the couch between the two. They put down their video game controllers; they didn't feel much like playing under the circumstances. "But....you really have to go now? I mean, she won't let you stay a few more days?...." "No. She said now. She wanted me home tonight, but I said you guys couldn't do it. I like it here though....I finally feel like I belong in someplace outside my family....I finally have friends, I finally feel normal." "Yeah...but you don't really have a choice Liss. Look, I'm sure she'll let ya come back soon." "I wouldn't count on that. I don't think she approves of my new abilities, or of you guys trying to help me with them. I'd better get my things ready." Melissa got up, staring up at the stairs forlornly. "But one thing, before I have to get ready to go. You guys all have these nicknames for each other, and I'd like one too before I go, just to help me remember you guys and how great you were when I never get to see you again." She sat back down. "So what do you think would be a good one for me?" "Uh....I don't know, I was just gonna call ya Liss from now on. Whaddya think BB?" "I don't know...." "But see, like his name's Beast Boy, but you guys all call him BB, and your name's Cyborg, but everyone calls you Cy.." "Whoa, wait. Those aren't even our names. I think what you really want is a superhero alias. And that's gonna take some thinkin'. Hmmm.....alright, tell us some names ya like, and we'll try to figure out from there what'd work with your powers." "Um...okay..... Well, some names I like are Anastasia, Adriana, Carolina....um....what's the point in this again?" "Okay, look. My real name isn't Beast Boy, it's Garfield. But I'm not gonna have people calling me Garfield or something stupid like that in the middle of a battle. Everyone'd laugh at me. So we all made up these fake names for ourselves that sound totally cool. Besides, you don't want some villain to find out who you really are, so you only use the fake name. And after a while, we made up nicknames for them too." "Garfield?!" She tried to stifle her laughter as she continued, "Oh...I get it now....I think. Um....Okay, so then it has to do with everyone's abilities.....um....well, I don't think there's any name for me then....unless....but no, that's just sick." "What?" "Um....well, since I can't think of anything for my powers, I just thought maybe Aura, cause it has to do kinda with my stupid seizures, but then, who wants a name like that, telling everyone about what your disability is? Even if Aura is a cool space probe too... Oh, forget it, it's hopeless." "No, c'mon, we'll think of somethin'. There's a name for everyone, we'll just hafta think a little more on yours." "Yeah..guess you're right. Well, I'm gonna go get my things ready. See you guys later." Melissa got up and walked to her room. When she opened the door, she stood there, frozen in awe. "They....they painted it...They painted my room....all for me...." She walked in, and stared in a daze at the ceiling and the walls, painted like galaxies and nebulae, then sat on the new bed, which looked just like her old one from home. "How did they know what to get?....they're the best friends ever! Oh, I can't leave.....Look at how wonderful they are...Raven must've told them what I'd like, and they must've done it while I was with BB. But....I don't have any choice...I have to leave....Mommy said, and I can't defy her....." Melissa put her head onto her pillow and sobbed herself to sleep.

A little while later, a knock on her door jarred her from her sleep. "Uh....yeah, yeah, I'm coming. Hold on a sec." She opened the door to see Cy and BB standing there, smiling. "Hey, Melissa, we thought of some names, and we wanted to tell you.....Hey, were you crying?" "Uh, no, I...I'm fine. You guys wanna come in and tell me? Oh, and Cy, thanks you so much for my room!" She exclaimed, hugging him as he walked in. "Oh, you're welcome. I'm glad ya like it. We weren't really sure how to decorate it, but Rae said space stuff. Anyway, BB, you wanna tell her the names, or should I?" "I will. Okay," Beast Boy said, pulling a list from his pocket, "here they are. Ultra Ears, ya know, cause you hear so good and all, um.. Electra...oh no, wait, forget that one, it's taken, I forgot. Um... Gamma, X, Spactra..." "That's supposed to be Spectra, just so ya know Liss.", Cyborg whispered to Melissa. "Wait.....electromagnetic energy is light? Like the spectrum of light, X-rays, gamma rays, infrared, and all that stuff?!" "Uh...yeah, you didn't know that? I thought you took astronomy or physics or somethin'. Least that's what Rae said." Beast Boy just stared at the two, having absolutely no idea what they were saying. "Uh...I'm gonna go play more games. Catch you guys later, after you're done with you're science geek talk." "Whatever. Anyway, I do take physics, and astronomy, but I just...didn't know that somehow...Oh my gosh, then I just thought of the perfect name! I can use my Confirmation name, Aurora. She was the Greek goddess of the sunrise, and it's sounds just like Aura too! Which doesn't even matter, since now the name'll have something to do with my powers! What do you think?" "I think you found your superhero name. _Aurora_." Cyborg said the last word in a teasing voice. "He, if it sounds bad!...." "No, no, it's cool. I'm just kidding around with ya is all. Let's go tell BB, and when Rob and Star get back, we can tell them too." She followed him down, and they told Beast Boy. "Aurora, huh? That's kinda pretty. I like it." Melissa smiled as they all sat down to play Super Space Monkeys 5. They played about 4 rounds, then went to bed, trying not to think about tomorrow morning.

"Robin, please, I am getting the tired feeling of longing for bed, and the droopingness of my eyes. May we please go now?" "Just one more minute Star. I still need to look up one more thing, then we can go." Robin said, closing Cyborg's computer, and going over to look at the newspaper archives. "Very well Robin, but I am too tired to stay. I do not wish to leave you but if you will not come, then I must." "Ugh...fine, I'm coming." Robin didn't want to leave, but he couldn't say no to Star, so he reluctantly returned to the Tower and went to bed.

The next morning, everyone was in the living room, saying goodbye to Aurora. "I..I shall miss you my dear friend, and I do hope that you will return from your imprisonment to us?!" Starfire sobbed as she tackled Aurora in a tight hug, crushing her ribs. "It's..it's not prison, it's home.....But I will be back, no matter what my mother tells me. This feels like home too now. I never had friends before, and now that I do, I not going to let anyone screw it up for me." Aurora sobbed back, as she struggled out of Starfire's tight embrace. "Good, I hope you do. We'll really miss having you on the team. You're a valuable asset to us.", Robin said in his usual businesslike manner. Beast Boy nudged Aurora in her side. "Yeah, and don't forget what you promised me. You've gotta see that teacher, and then come back so we can get her out." He whispered to her. "I know I know, you guys. But I will be back." "Don't take too long either man, cause we're gonna miss ya. Anyways, I guess we'd better get goin' before we hit all the rush hour traffic." "Okay, bye everyone." Aurora waved as she walked out the door with Cyborg, who had been kind enough to offer to drive her home. The drive seemed to be over too soon, and before she knew it, she was back to her life as Melissa again, standing at her front door hugging Cyborg goodbye. "Bye Aurora. Look, you'd better get inside before your mom kills ya." And with that, he walked back to his car, waited till she rang the doorbell and was let in, then drove off for the Tower. That night, everyone cried, everyone except Raven, who was inwardly ecstatic to see Melissa go, and hadn't even said goodbye. At least now she'd have a chance with Beast Boy again, but she knew now to work fast, before someone else could come along and screw things up.

_((A/N: Oh, and I've got nothing against hairdressers, so no offense to anyone! I just needed something mean for Rae to say. And also, sorry for the long chapter- and the fact that it'll probably be about a week, maybe more before I can get any new chaps up.))_


	5. Longing For You

((Okay, first of all, I'd like to thank my two reviewers for their comments. It meant a lot to me that you read and enjoyed my story...also, I apologize for making you wait so long for a new chapter. But this time it's a bit shorter, so it shouldn't kill people to read. I wanted to keep suspense, so I had to end it quickly. Anyways, please read and review, and I hope ya like it!))

Update ((Hey hollywoodstarsandeyes, thanks for the review! And...sorry I kinda rushed though all the stuff in the first chapter...I was afraid if I didn't pile a whole lotta stuff into each chapter, people would get bored, and not wanna read my story. But thanks for the tip, and I'll try to slow down a bit, and focus more on explanations and details in my future chapters.))

((And, of course, I don't own Teen Titans- only my made- up characters, Melissa(Aurora) and her family.))

_Chapter 5_

"No, it's my toy!" "No, mine!...Hey Mommy, Andy hit me!" Melissa sat at the dining room table, hands over her ears, trying to ignore them and do her homework, since it was just about time for mid-term exams, and she needed to study. But when Andy ran into her, and he and Karin began to pinch and hit each other right next to her arm, injuring her as well, it got to be too much and she snapped. "I'm gonna KILL you jerks!" Melissa quickly got up, and threw three of the dining room chairs at their heads at their heads with her telekinesis , before her mother turned and screamed at her, and the full realization of what she'd done in her anger hit her. "What the HELL did you do you little bitch!" Melissa's mother yelled out, running over to Karin and Andy to try to help them, then taking Melissa's school books, and throwing them at her. "Get to your room, NOW!" "I...I'm sorry...I didn't mean to..." "I said, NOW!" "I...okay..."

Melissa ran up to her room and slammed the door, praying to God that she hadn't killed them, or given them irreversible brain damage. About 10 minutes later, she heard sirens. She packed her clothes, bedding, and a few other things she wanted to have, then opened the window and jumped out. She hit the ground, unable to stop herself with her powers, and only slightly softening the blow. But she tried her best to ignore the pain, and ran through the backyard and out of the hole in the fence. She started heading off towards the other side of town, where she was pretty sure there was a train station. She just hoped she didn't wind up getting killed in that slum- yet the more she thought about it, the less she cared; after all, she probably deserved to die. She was just about to cross over the tracks to the slum section, when she stopped and realized she didn't need any train.

Melissa turned and ran back a few blocks to ensure that she was out of danger, then pulled out her communicator. After roughly a minute, Cyborg answered. "Hey, yo girl, what's up?" "Um...well, I kinda ran away from home, and I need one of you guys to come pick me up if it's okay. I think I want to stay with you guys for a few days, till I can go back home. _If I can ever go back home._" She said to herself as an afterthought. Cyborg sounded a bit taken aback by her response, but tried not to show it. "Uh, yeah, sure man. Where are ya? I can be there in about half an hour." "I'm in my town. You just go all the way to the end of my street, then turn left, and go down about...5 blocks I guess." "Okay, I'll be there." "Thanks." Melissa smiled, despite her precarious situation, and sat down and waited.

* * *

Cyborg came quicker than she expected, and she ran over and jumped into the car. "So, what's up Aurora?" "Nothing. I don't wanna talk about it right now." "Uh...okay. That's cool." For the rest of the ride, they drove in silence. When they got to the Tower, Melissa jumped out and ran inside. She was anxious to talk to Beast Boy. So, after the hugging and all for like 10 minutes, she got away from Star, and pulled Beast Boy to the side. "Hey, I need to talk to you. Think we could talk in my room right now?" "Yeah, sure."

Beast Boy followed her upstairs and into her room, which had finally been completely painted, and now had dark pink walls with pictures of nebulae and galaxies on them, as well as a dark blue ceiling with a huge, light- up galaxy painted in the middle. "Whoa...when did you guys do this?" "Uh, we started the day after you left, and me and Cy just finished on Saturday." "Wow. Thanks you so much. It's perfect. I wish I hadn't been gone so long- two weeks is a long time, and I missed you guys so much. You really are the best friends anyone could ever have, aren't you?" "Huh, yeah, well-" Beast Boy said, embarrassed. "So, anyways, what do ya wanna tell me?" "Oh, yeah." Melissa snapped out of her revelry. "Come here. I talked to the chemistry teacher at my school last week. And...well, I've got two things we can try. Only, the second one is a last resort, cause there's a chance it can destroy living tissue. But the first one she gave me...chlorous sulfuric acid, it should-" "Whoa, wait, I thought that sulfur acid stuff can like burn through anything!" "It can, but this is a different type. I know, at first I thought the same thing. But don't worry, I asked that teacher all about it. She said this stuff is almost totally safe, and should take care of the lava. I wanna try it tomorrow." "Tomorrow! Why not today!" "Cause it's just about midnight, and I'm going to bed. Goodnight." Melissa pushed Beast Boy out of the room and shut the door, trying to ignore his incessant queries as to what would happen tomorrow.

* * *

Bright and early, Melissa was woken up by the sound of a cat scratching her door, as well as repeated banging. She got dressed, and walked over and opened it. "Yo, how long does it take to get you up! I've been here 10 minutes already! And...what are you wearing?" Beast Boy looked at Melissa up and down, appalled. She was dressed in a light blue, pleated mini-skirt, and a light blue top with ruffles on the sleeves and waist, and a large letter A appliqued on the chest in silver script. She also wore blue knee socks, a silver letter A necklace, and blue and silver butterfly clips on either side of her hair. She stared back at Beast Boy dispirited. "It's...it's my superhero costume. It looks that bad?..." "No, it's okay. I was just wondering why you were dressed in those weird clothes. You never had a costume before, so I didn't know. Anyways, we've gotta go now, and save Terra." Beast Boy grabbed her arm, and pulled her out of the Tower. "Wait- I don't have the stuff!" She called out to him as he turned into a pterodactyl and was ready to grab her and fly to Terra's memorial. "Dude, what are you, stupid! Hurry up! We gotta get there like now!" Melissa ran back in and got the chemicals, then hurried back out. "Dude, bout time." Beast Boy said, looking at her impatiently , even though she'd only been gone about 5 minutes.

* * *

It didn't take long for them to arrive at the site; Beast Boy knew the fastest way there, obviously from repeated visits to see Terra. It was dark down there; dark and dank smelling. Melissa was sure there hadn't been any fresh air in the underground tunnels for at least a month, probably longer. It was as though everything inside was in suspended animation, untouched by the outside world for what seemed like forever. And then suddenly, the tunnels opened up onto a huge, cavernous room in the center of which stood a perfectly preserved statue of a young girl. Melissa gasped at the site, but didn't say anything to Beast Boy, since he looked about ready to cry again, and seemed to want to stay cloistered within his own thoughts. Finally, when they'd reached the statue, he spoke. "Yeah, she's been here about 7 months now. It kinda sucks, ya know? I mean, she's stuck here after she died trying to kill Slade, and he's walking around like nothin' ever happened. I feel like I was such a horrible friend, to let this happen. And now we still can't even take Slade down..." Beast Boy said, the sadness in his voice turning to anger as he spoke the last few sentences.

Melissa didn't know what to say, so she just went immediately to work, stepping up onto the lava base that the statue was resting on. She took out the beaker of special sulfuric acid, and started to slowly pour it over the entire statue. That took about 15 minutes, and when she was done she stepped off the base and went over to Beast Boy. "I guess we just wait now. I'm not really sure.", she said, watching as the compound dripped off the lava, making a sizzling noise as it slowly began to burn through it. "Yeah...how long does it take?" "I have no idea...but it shouldn't be more than like 10 minutes, right?" So they waited. Eventually, the acid stopped sizzling, and most had dripped to the ground. Melissa looked at her watch; they'd been standing there for almost an hour now.

"Uh...Beast Boy..." "Yeah?" "Um...I don't want to sound mean, but I think we should go. I don't think it worked..." Beast Boy looked like he was about to cry again, then suddenly said, "But wait! Use the other stuff then! We can still get her out, even if this stupid stuff didn't work! Do it now!" "I...I can't...That teacher said not to mix the two. We have to wait for at least...I think she said two days, and then I'm not sure if we should use it. I mean, remember, the other stuff will probably burn right through." A crazed look came over Beast Boy's face. "I don't care! Use it now! We have to save Terra!" Beast Boy grabbed Melissa's arm violently, trying to force her to use the other chemical. She hit him in the face with her free hand, and he stood back, stunned. After a few seconds, he turned and left. Melissa followed close behind, not wanting to get lost in the underground tunnels. When they got back to the Tower, he went immediately to his room, and didn't come out the rest of the night. Melissa could hear him crying when she walked by to go down for dinner, and was about to knock on his door, but wasn't sure of what to say.

"Hey Melissa.", Robin said. "Uh...where's Beast Boy? Wasn't he with you today?" "Uh...yeah, but we kinda...um...had a disagreement, and he's in his room." "Yo, I'll go get him. I know he won't wanna miss dinner- especially since today I made tofu burgers for him." Cyborg offered. "Uh...I think he wants to be alone...He's...kinda...crying right now..." "Why, what'd you do? Never mind. I'll go talk to him." Raven immediately got up and went to Beast Boy's room. Starfire jumped up from her seat to follow Raven, spilling soda all over the table. "Oh, I do hope friend Beast Boy is quite okay! Perhaps I should journey to his room and console him as well?" "No Star, I think Raven can handle it. Why don't you eat?" Robin said, pulling Starfire back into her seat. "Very well, if you are sure he will be all right." After that, they all ate in silence.

Raven came down about 15 minutes later, looking tired and annoyed. "Well?", Robin asked. "He'll be fine. He just needs to be alone for a while. And he needs **you** to stay away from him." Raven said, looking at Melissa. "I...um, okay...Look, I'm sorry, but when he grabbed me-" "Save it." Raven answered, then turned away from Melissa, ignoring her. Soon, the other Titans were all involved in a conversation, with Melissa just sitting there, staring at her hands in her lap and being ignored. Finally, she got up and went to her room, where she soon started crying, blaming herself for Beast Boy's actions, and hating herself for the way she'd treated him earlier in the day. After all, he had reason to feel angry, and she should've understood that. She kept thinking about this over and over, and mentally kicking herself, as she cried herself to sleep. Beast Boy, in his room, did the same.

* * *

It was so dark down there. But then 200 feet underground it should be. They must have forgotten, must have given up. She couldn't blame them though. She'd done terrible things. Unforgivable things. Slade was right all along. She had no friends. But she didn't deserve them. She just wished she could see Beast Boy one last time. He didn't come and sleep at her feet and cry over her "death" anymore; he hadn't even visited for what seemed like weeks. But then there was no way to tell how long it had been, how long she had been trapped in this hell on earth that she had created for herself. It was as though time stood still here, as she had watched her friends come and go less and less frequently, putting flowers at her feet, comforting Beast Boy by telling him they'd find some way to reverse the effects. Then they stopped coming at all. And now she was all alone. And she couldn't blame them either; she only blamed herself. She started to cry to herself, and gasp for what little air passed through the openings in the pumice. The acidic chemicals that Aurora had poured on the rock still sizzled slightly, as they slowly began to break down the rock. And ever so slowly, so that it was barely noticeable to the human eye, the lava began to crack around her body and fall off in small pieces to the ground. After about two hours, the lava encasement finally shattered from her and she fell to the floor of the cavern, gasping for much needed air, not even able to stand on her own. As she breathed in the air, and crawled to a puddle left from the previous night's rain, drinking every drop as though it were her last, she slowly regained her strength, and within a few hours pulled herself up to a standing position against the wall. She struggled to stand freely, and finally succeeded when suddenly something hit her head and she fell to the cavern floor unconscious. 


	6. Terra's Return

_Chapter 6_

"May we please journey to the mall of shopping now Raven? I wish to purchase a small feline companion from the "kitty store" which Melissa has told me about. Please, please, please!" Starfire jumped up and down in front of Raven in hope and anticipation. "I told you, no. I need to meditate and that's it. Besides, after what happened last time, didn't I say I'd never go to the mall with you again?" "Yes, but please! I promise I will not have the decorations put onto your hair this time, nor the pink coloring. I juts wish to journey with someone to get a small feline companion at the kitty store!" "No." Raven answered simply, ignoring Starfire and teleporting up to her room where she could meditate in quiet.

"Hey Starfire...I'll go with you." Melissa said, coming down the stairs for breakfast. "I need to get a few things at the mall too, and I need help picking them out. I figure you'll be good at that- if it's okay with you- and if I have enough money." "Yes! Of course it is fine! Let us journey then to the kitty store you have told me so much about!" Starfire grabbed Melissa's arm and yanked her out the door. She held on to Melissa the entire time, flying to the mall with her in tow. When they got there, Starfire immediately ran in to find the "kitty store". A few minutes later, she came back to the entrance where she'd left Melissa, who was now reading the mal directory intently. "I am unable to locate the kitty store. Might you perhaps know where it is?" "Um...just a second Starfire...yeah, okay I found it. It's on the upper level, on the other side of the mall. We'll go there first, then I'm going to go into Bloomingdale's cause it's right there. Okay?" "Yes, but let us please hurry. I wish to find a cute cuddly friend to bring home with me." They headed off for the Hello Kitty store, Starfire running ahead, and Melissa trying to keep up, but quickly becoming exhausted. When they arrived at the "kitty store", Melissa called out for Star to stop. She turned, and just as Melissa caught up to her, let out a huge scream of delight. She then ran into the store and began picking up every single stuffed animal in there, completely unable to decide which one's she wanted. "Oh, friend Melissa! When you had told me about the kitty store, I did not realize how wonderful a place it actually was, nor the amount of cuddly friends which one could buy here! Thank you so much!I do not believe I ever wish to leave!" Starfire cried, wrapping Melissa in a bone-crushing hug. "Uh...yeah..you're welcome. Could you let go?" Starfire immediately let her go. "Um...well, I guess you'll be here a while, so I'm gonna go to Bloomingdale's okay? Call me on the communicator thingy if you're gonna leave this store." "Yes I will- though I do not believe I shall leave for a very long time."Starfire replied, hugging more cuddly animals to her.

Melissa smiled, then turned and walked out of the store and into Bloomingdale's which was only about 5 stores away. She thought she had a pretty good idea of what she wanted, and what would look good, although she would've liked somebody's help and guidance. She wandered around for about 20 minutes, then, after a salesperson came over and offered to help her, she found a few skirts and shirts to try on. Only one skirt and two of the shirts actually fit, and she didn't like the way they looked together, so she left the store and headed off to Nordstrom's. She wasn't exactly happy about the priceyness of the stores in the mall, but there was nothing she could do about it. She figured if she really needed to, she could ask Star to borrow some money. After about half an hour in the store, Melissa finally found something she liked that fit. She settled on a light blue pleated skirt that reached her knees, with a small ruffle along the bottom, and a matching shirt, with ruffles on the sleeves, waist, and neckline. Both were completely plain, which worked out perfectly for what she had envisioned. She had just enough money to purchase them, since it came to $78 dollars. "Oh well, I guess I won't be getting the accessories today.." Melissa sighed to herself. She walked back to the Hello Kitty store, where Starfire had just finished purchasing half of the store's merchandise. Starfire smiled giddily as she commenced showing Melissa every item she had purchased. "...And this one I shall put by my window, for I believe this lovable chicken will gain great pleasure there,... and this furry black feline I shall give to Silkie, for I believe he would very much like to have the 'cuddle' with it- or perhaps eat it...and" "Um...I'm kinda tired...could you show me the rest back at the Tower?" Melissa interrupted. "Yes, very well. I am also feeling the tired, so let us journey home."

They arrived back at the Tower about 15 minutes later, and Starfire immediately commenced showing off her purchases to Melissa again. "Hey, um...Starfire?..." "Yes?" "Do you know where Robin is?" "I do not.." "Oh well. I'm gonna go look for him then, okay?" Melissa walked away. After about half an hour of wandering the maze they called hallways, she found him in the gym, lifting weights. "Uh...hey, I don't want to disturb you, but I wanted to ask you something...That okay?..Wow, those are some heavy weights..."She stared at them, impressed. "Sure Melissa. What do you need ?" Robin said, getting up from the weight machine, and grabbing a water bottle from atop a stack of weights nearby, then walking over to talk with her. "Um...well, I'm sorry to disturb you...and, and you really didn't have to get up. I just wanted to know where you got all the stuff for your costume...cause I'm trying to make one of my own." "Oh..is that all? I'd be happy to help. I'll give you some peoples' numbers, they can get you all the stuff you'll need, like utility belt, weapons, etc. But I don't have them with me right now-" "Yeah...I..I understand, and I'm sooooo sorry to have interrupted you. But thanks for your help." Melissa turned and left, going back to her room to work on her new costume. Just as she sat on the bed, the alarm rang throughout the Tower, and she heard Robin cry "Titans! Trouble!" She heaved a sigh and headed downstairs. The costume would have to wait.

"Who's it this time?" Robin asked upon arrival in the living room, still wiping sweat off his face with a towel. "It's Blood", Cyborg answered him, staring at the computer screen. "Seems he's got just 'bout every kid in town under his mind control, and now he's got them doin' his dirty work." "Okay, Titans g-". "Wait! B..Blood!", asked Melissa incredulously, cutting Robin off in mid-sentence. "Yeah. He's this way bad dude who wants to be like Cy's clone or something." Beast Boy answered her. "And he's got these way cool powers, like taking over people's brains and melting them." Melissa's eyes looked like they were about to bulge out of their sockets, and she looked as though she was about to be sick. "I think what Beast Boy means is that if you aren't careful, Brother Blood can control your mind and force you to do his bidding. Anyway, this is pointless. We're wasting time." "Raven's right. Let's go. And be careful guys- especially you Melissa, this is your first time fighting him." The Titans ran towards the door.

"But...but...", Melissa started quietly, then, beginning to gain courage from her fear of the impending battle yelled out to them, "Wait! Should I even come! Look what's happened every other time I've tried to do anything to help you guys!" The Titans all stopped. Finally Robin went over to her and took her hand. "I know you've had some problems with controlling your powers, and with your disability, but we could really use your help. Besides, I think you've gradually been getting a little better at your control. I'm sure you'll do fine, and this could be the chance you need to prove to yourself that you can do it. So what do you say?" For a moment, everyone looked at Melissa, and she back at them. Finally, she put her head down and said, "Fine. But then, if I screw up again, I'm done with all this. It'll prove I'm a total failure at everything I do, and I'm totally worthless... But if you need me, I'll help." At that, the Titans hurried to the city to stop Brother Blood.

Upon arrival in the city, the Titans found over two hundred kids and teens ransacking stores, breaking windows, stealing cars or money- heck, if you could name the felony, you could bet they were committing it. "Wow, and I thought I had anger issues", Raven commented, staring at one boy who was beating a bank teller to death with a chair. "Titans go! Take 'em down, but try not to hurt them!" So with that, the Titans ran off, all in separate directions, to control the crowds of crazed kids. It didn't take long though- true, Robin had to tie a few up or stun them with explosives, and Starfire and Cyborg hit them with a couple of low-energy starbolts and ion cannon bursts- but within a few minutes Raven had the entire thing under control. First, she had tried wrapping them in dark energy and then putting them in bubbles of it to contain them, like she'd done to those kids who'd once stolen Cyborg's car. But when that wasn't working fast enough, and the crazed kids started closing in for the kill, she quickly levitated up to a roof and started meditating. After all, Brother Blood wasn't the only one with mind control powers. It took a bit longer than usual, since there were so many kids, and since they were already under the control of another, but finally Raven broke Blood's control over them. They immediately stopped their violence, looking around in confusion, and finally a good number of them that hadn't been incapacitated by the battle turned and left for their homes. Raven meanwhile, had passed out from the strain, just as she broke Blood's control on the children.

After the kids left, Robin got on his communicator and ordered everyone to regroup, which they quickly did. "Where's Raven?", he asked. "I don't know man, wasn't she with you?" "She wasn't with _anyone_, remember? We all split up. Well, anyway, we've gotta hurry if we're gonna stop Blood. So everyone fan out and find her." They did as they were told, and finally Beast Boy, flying over the area as a pterodactyl saw Raven lying on a rooftop. He landed near her, changed back into human form and called everyone to let them now to stop the search, and changed back into a pterodactyl, grabbing her and bringing her to the ground. She came to almost immediately, and sat, then stood up, embarrassed about what had happened, but trying her best to hide it. Soon everyone else arrived on the scene. "What happened Beast Boy?" "Uh...", he just stared at Robin, truthfully not knowing what had happened. "I'm fine", Raven interjected. "All that happened was that when I broke Blood's control on those kids, the strain was to much on my mind, okay." "Fine, whateva. But we gonna go after Blood or what?" "Yeah, we will. But Raven, I think you should go back to the Tower infirmary and get some rest. The rest of us will take care of Blood." "I'm fine, really." "No, you need to rest. Go back to the Tower, and that's final. Cyborg, maybe you should go with her and make sure she's alright. "Oh man..." "No, really, it's okay. I'll go if I have to, but I don't need an escort. I'm not 4." With that, Raven flew off, back to the Tower, extremely irritated. The remaining Titans went to go find Brother Blood.

It didn't take long to find him- in fact, Brother Blood found them as they walked past a large bank. Just as they passed it by, he came out, hooded H.I.V.E. workers in tow. He immediately began provoking Cyborg, capturing his attention. "Why Cyborg. So nice to see you again. And I see you brought along your comical little friends too." Cyborg immediately turned at the sound of his voice, enraged. "Oh yeah? Well these 'little friends' are gonna kick your-" "Cyborg! Enough talk. Titans, go!" And so the Titans began their attack on Brother Blood and the H.I.V.E. workers protecting him. Robin and Cyborg ran towards Blood, Cyborg shooting his sonic cannon continuously, and Robin throwing birdarangs and disk explosives at the workers guarding Blood. Soon everyone was caught up in the melee- Beast Boy had transformed into a velociraptor and was biting the cloaked figures(not eating them mind you), while Starfire was shooting a steady stream of starbolts in all directions as she turned to punch one, then another of Blood's workers- only Melissa wasn't involved- she was standing behind a large blue mailbox on the corner next to the bank, watching the battle in sheer terror.

Blood quickly reacted to Robin and Cyborg's attacks, throwing off his cloak and revealing yet again his robotic body which he had had modeled after Cyborg. He fired ion blasts right back at Robin and Cyborg, too quickly for them to have time to react. Robin was shot back against a building from the blast but he quickly got back on his feet, while the blast aimed at Cyborg missed him by inches. Cyborg turned quickly to see if Robin was okay, and by the time he looked back Blood was standing right in front of him. He punched Cyborg in the face, then the chest, before Cyborg could react. Soon they were both punching and kicking each other, their fight moving back and forth in the fray, with no end in sight. Robin headed back towards Cyborg, ready to help him fight Blood again, but then heard Starfire cry out. One of the cloaked figures had grabbed her from behind, and was crushing her tighter and tighter around the stomach while she kicked at him, as two others repeatedly punched her in the face, chest, and stomach, while she attempted to fire starbolts at them from her eyes. Robin pulled out his staff and rushed to help her, forgetting for the moment about Cyborg. He ran over, spinning his staff, hitting the two that had been punching her square in the face. Relieved, she quickly kicked the one holding her extremely hard, forcing him to drop her. She turned and shot him with a huge starbolt that took two hands to hold, sending him flying into a steel wall. "I am most grateful to you Robin for my safe retrieval.", she smiled at him. "Don't thank me just yet...", he said, as at least 10 more H.I.V.E. workers surrounded the two. They immediately got to work taking them down, Robin with his staff, and Star with her starbolts. As this was happening, Beast Boy was also having some problems. He too was surrounded, and was growing very tired. After having been a velociraptor, he had changed into a whale, a stegosaurus to try to stab them with his tail, a jaguar, and was now finally a gorilla, punching and beating them as they jumped on him, violently hitting him. He'd gotten a good number knocked out already, but was tired from transforming so much, as well as it being rather late, and him not having had any dinner yet- or much of any sleep the night before. His stomach groaned and he pounded them faster, in hopes of getting food, but he was pretty sure he couldn't beat them all up in his current fatigued state.

Meanwhile, Melissa now sat behind her mailbox, frozen in horror as she peered around the edge and prayed not to be seen. _"After all"_, she thought, _"these guys do this all the time. They don't need my help. And anyway, the freaks they're fighting look like dementors out of harry Potter or something. I'll wind up dead!"_ Suddenly though, Melissa saw Brother Blood hit Cyborg in the chest, after which he fell to the ground instantly. She screamed, thinking he was dead, and forgetting that she'd been trying to hide herself, and then ran out into the street to see if she could try and save him. (Since she hadn't been around the last time he'd fought Blood, and didn't know that Cyborg had had this happen before and would be fine). Just before reaching Cyborg, Blood fired an ion blast at her, which she barely dodged, and only because she tripped on a fallen H.I.V.E. worker. She quickly crawled over to Cyborg, as Blood came at her, and put up her hands in self-defense, to cover her head in case he tried to shoot again as she saw him coming, since she now had no other defense. Suddenly he was wrapped in her electro-magnetic energy 'ropes'.

She looked up, wondering at why she hadn't been shot yet, and saw that she had inadvertently trapped Blood. She immediately began squeezing tighter, almost to the point of crushing him, and kept him there until Robin and the others had beaten all of Blood's workers, and were loading them into police cars to be sent to jail. Robin then came over. "Okay, you can let him go now. I'll take care of it from here.", and as she let Blood go and Robin led him to a cop car, he said, "You did a pretty good job tonight." After Blood had been taken away, Robin repaired Cyborg, and they all headed back to the Tower, exhausted. When they got there, they ordered a pizza, since they'd been too tired to eat at the Pizza place that night.

Finally the pizza arrived, and they were all sitting down to dinner, starving and exhausted after the long battle. Just as they started digging into the pizzas, the 'doorbell' rang. Nobody wanted to leave their food, but after it rang again, and after receiving a look from Robin, Cyborg got up muttering, "Yeah fine, I'll get it jerk. What am I, the doorman, just cause I don't _have_ to eat?" He walked down the living room stairs and the front door, as the bell rang twice more, making him even more ticked. "Yeah, I _got it _already. I'm comin'. You can stop with the damn bell!", he yelled. He angrily threw open the door, and was about to tell the person standing there off, but then stopped and froze in shock. The girl standing there didn't waste any time and said, "Hey how've ya been? Long time no see, huh? Look, I just wanted to come and apologize for everything if you'll let me- and most of all, to see Beast Boy." She looked at him, and realizing she probably wouldn't get a response from him the way he was acting, she started edging past him and through the doorway. He moved aside a bit, automatically, and let her pass. "He's here, right?" Cyborg only nodded slowly in reply, as if lost in a daydream and unable to break free. Finally, after she was halfway up the stairs, he managed to close the front door, then turned and muttered a barely audible "whoa".

As the door to the living room opened, Robin looked up disinterestedly from his food and said, "So, Cyborg, who was it?" The last word barely made it out of his mouth, as he saw that the person emerging from the stairwell was indeed not Cyborg. Robin's sudden silence made everyone else glance up, confused at his behavior. Raven and Beast Boy dropped their pizza, halfway to their mouths, Beast Boy's piece falling unnoticed onto his lap. Starfire immediately jumped up, squealed, and ran for the doorway, grabbing the girl and hugging her. Beast Boy stood as well, though much more slowly, and looking dazed and ready to faint. He tried to say something, but no sound would come out, and he just stood there in frozen shock until Starfire dragged the girl by the arm back from the doorway to the kitchen table. Finally, Beast Boy spoke, a strange lopsided grin on his face. "I...but...how?...Terra?..." And with that, he passed out.

* * *

Okay, so I know that I took a longggggggggg time to update- and now that I did, the new chapter wasn't the greatest. But I'm gonna try to update more often now- God willing- so you hopefully won't have to wait so long to see what happens from now on. Anyway, I'd really like some feedback on how I'm doing, so I can make improvements on my writing style if this story totally sucks. You may have also noticed that I CANNOT write a battle scene- I imagine them just fine, but once I try to put 'em to paper, they suck. If anyone's got any helpful hints on how I can improve that, I'd be soooo grateful! Anyway, hope you enjoyed the new chapter! I'll be updating soon! (after I get a chance to write the rest of Chapter 7, and get my computer working normally again- so figure roughly 3 weeks...) Bye for now! 


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